Dom Flemons Releases First Solo Album
Dom Flemons is bringing back old-time music with unbridled enthusiasm. As a former member of grammy-winning Southern string group Carolina Chocolate Drops, Flemons has extensive experience with traditional African-American string bands, and brings this bluesy flavor to his new solo album, Prospect Hill. It’s his first since leaving the group, and it features him on…
ACLU’s FREADom Event Tonight
Celebrity readers celebrate banned and challenged media
Lynn Cullen Live 09/22/14
Video Archive NFL and brain injuries. 3 stages of truth. NY mayor in Pittsburgh. PG gets new printing press, it gets blessed by Priest/Rabbi. Chinese millionaires get target in Paris and are getting Paris Syndrome. Callers: Michael, Tom. Audio Only Archive Listen to the Audio Archives on with our new Apple and Android Apps or…
Final Two Performances for Everyman at Throughline Theatre
My big question going in was how the company would ever interpret this medieval Christian allegory. How do you sell a 600-year-old play about the fact that we’re all going to die to an affluent, secular 21st-century audience dressed for a night on the town? The answer, brilliantly rendered by the folks at Throughline, is…
Vote for Local Crafters in the 2014 Martha Stewart American Made Awards
Two local crafters are finalists in the 2014 Martha Stewart American Made Awards. The competition, according to the Martha Stewart website, is designed to spotlight “the next generation of great American makers: entrepreneurs, artisans, and small-business owners who are creating beautiful, inspiring, useful products; pioneering new industries; improving local communities; and changing the way we…
Two More Weekends for As You Like It at Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks
Five shows remain in two city parks
ALCOSAN Open House is Tomorrow
Festival includes tours, free food and more
VIA Festival main event venue announced: Union Trust Building
The semi-nomadic, sort-of pop-up VIA Festival, which takes place each fall at a number of venues across town, has announced that its main-event venue this year will be the Union Trust Building, the Osterling-designed building at Grant Street and Fifth Avenue. It marks the first time the art-and-music festival has had its main venue Downtown;…
Top Visiting Spoken-Word Artists Here Tomorrow
Sets by a couple of visiting spoken-word artists with award-winning track records highlight tomorrow’s Eargasm Open Mic series. The three-year-old series, which recently moved to The Hill House Kaufman Center, features Breeze “I Life This” The Poet and Roscoe Burnems, both based in Virginia. Breeze holds a host of titles from 2012 and 2013, including…
The Mastersons play Club Cafe tonight
The Mastersons, Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore, are closer in tone to the Dixie Chicks (with whom they share a producer in Jim Scott), than Steve Earle.
Local poet Terrance Hayes Wins “Genius Grant”
$625,000 stipend accompanies honor
Rappelling for cancer
Earlier today, Wonder Woman, Superman and Spider-Man rappelled down a 25-story skyscraper in Downtown Pittsburgh to raise funds and awareness for Our Clubhouse, a cancer support organization. “This is nothing compared to the battle cancer patients go through on a daily basis,” said Kevin Bright, a three-year fundraiser for Our Clubhouse who dressed up as…
New Releases
Palermo Stone The 2nd Coming (R.A.R.E. Nation) New concept album from the local rapper. Stone alternates between documenting anger, disappointment and fear — and apocalyptic thought — and hope and positive thought. (“There is no good and evil / There’s only power and those too weak to seek it / You see, I’m half good…
Pittsburgh’s Lost Steamboat at the History Center
PITTSBURGH’S LOST STEAMBOAT: TREASURES OF THE ARABIA continues through Jan. 4. Heinz History Center 1212 Smallman St. Strip District. 412-454-6000 or heinzhistory center.org It’s true, but also poetic, that archaeologists found the remains of the Steamboat Arabia not submerged in the riverwater of Brownsville or Pittsburgh, where it was constructed, but buried under 45 feet…
Gaining STEAM: Parents, teachers pushing for new curriculum at city’s Woolslair School
Woolslair elementary school parent Jaline Cunningham was an early supporter of a proposal to turn her child’s school into a science, technology, engineering, arts and math magnet school — also known as a STEAM school. But after seeing the model employed in the South Fayette School District over the summer, she says the benefits of…
Visiting and resident poets — and a detective novelist — are on tap
“Extinguish me from this,” writes Lucie Brock-Broido. “I was sixteen for twenty years. / By September I will be a ghost / And flickering in unison with all the other fireflies in Appalachia, / Blinking in the swarm of it, and all at once, above / And on a bare branch in a shepherd’s sky.”…
City officials says force used in Pride arrest was not excessive; should the public take them at their word?
When Pittsburgh police officer Souroth Chatterji arrested 19-year-old Ariel Lawther at the city’s annual LGBT Pride festival June 15, he pulled her by the neck and hair out of a crowd and punched her several times before detaining her. Video that surfaced of the incident quickly made it the first high-profile case of potential police…
Throughline Theatre’s Everyman
EVERYMAN continues through Sat., Sept. 20. Throughline Theatre Co. at the Grey Box Theatre 3595 Butler St. Lawrenceville. $12-15 888-718-4253 or throughline theatre.org There’s nothing like a 15th-century morality play to shake off the doldrums of summer. It definitely helps that the anonymously written Everyman is in the public domain, meaning not only that the…
Braddock Avenue Books upholds literary tradition in 21st century
“It’s not a good time for books that are well written,” Robert Peluso muses over coffee at Squirrel Hill’s 61C. “Books that are composed instead of just packaged.” “Imperiled,” his publishing partner, Jeffrey Condran, suggests. “These books are imperiled.” “Imperiled,” Peluso nods. “Imperiled is a better word.” “That’s why it’s all the more important that…
Dixie’s Tupperware Party at Pittsburgh CLO
DIXIE’S TUPPERWARE PARTY continues through Oct. 12. The Cabaret at Theater Square 655 Penn Ave. Downtown $49.75-50.75. 412-325-6766 or clocabaret.com Pittsburgh CLO Cabaret offers a return engagement of Dixie’s Tupperware Party, a highly interactive show where nothing is as it seems. On one level, we’re attending an honest-to-God Tupperware party, hosted by trailer trash Dixie…
Trust Issues
If you think about it, “In God We Trust” might be one of the most agnostic sayings of all time. If we trust God that much, after all, why do we feel obliged to say so? Putting that motto on the nation’s pocket change is a bit like loaning your friend $5 … and then…
Updates on two comics projects
Hip-hop pioneers get treated like Marvel Comics superheroes — each with his own auspicious origin story, and his own foibles — in volume 2 of Ed Piskor’s docu-comic Hip Hop Family Tree (Fantagraphics). The Pittsburgh-based artist’s grittily over-the-top style, full of fun and brimming with Jack Kirby references, has gone over big: Vol. 1, which…
Savage Love
I’m the bisexual everyone loves to hate because I want to be in a poly relationship with both a man and a woman. I am a woman who is into commitment, loyalty, love, trust and honesty. I am not looking to cheat on anyone. But I discovered after one failed marriage to a man and…
Predation, vicitimization, art and rebirth in Kimono
FRESH WORKS: MARK C. THOMPSON’S KIMONO 8 p.m., Fri., Sept. 19. The Alloy Studios 5530 Penn Ave Friendship. $10-15 412-363-3000 or kelly-strayhorn.org Predation is a theme that movement artist Mark Conway Thompson says he has been returning to in his works since 2007. “That has a lot to do with what I think is wrong with…
Short List: September 17 – 24
FREE EVENT: Wed., Sept. 24 — Admissions For 20 years, that 1 percent sales-tax surcharge you’ve been paying in Allegheny County has kept busy. Half has gone to property-tax relief, and the other half — some $1.5 billion — has been allocated by the Allegheny Regional Asset District to libraries, parks, civic assets from the…
Code Black
Code Black Directed by: Ryan McGarry Fri., Sept. 19, through Wed., Sept. 24. Melwood. Story by Al Hoff Maybe in the future, there will be feel-good films about America’s health-care system, but for now, the best we can hope for are documentaries that temper horror with hope. Such is the case with Code Black, an…
Stuff We Like
Pittsburgh Fashion Week. Now in its fifth year, this annual series of fashion-focused events gives attendees a taste of Pittsburgh’s retail scene. Sept. 22-28. www.pittsburghfashionweek.com PGH / Digs. Local illustrator Mundania Horvath does custom house portraits, illustrated in clean lines and vivid colors. Perfect for your own home-sweet-home, or as a unique house-warming gift. www.pghdigs.com Tomato…
The Drop
Michael K. Roskam’s The Drop, adapted from a Dennis Lehane story, revolves around an ordinary bar in a gritty part of Brooklyn. Marv (James Gandolfini) runs it, but Chechen mobsters own it. So some nights the bar serves as a drop for a lot of mob money. And the soft-spoken, laconic Bob (Tom Hardy) —…
Jade Grille
Jade Grille 670 Washington Road Mount Lebanon. 412-531-6666 Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sun. noon-9:30 p.m. Prices: Small plates, soups and skewers $4-12; sushi plates and entrees $10-28 Liquor: Full bar Chinese food — broadly conceived — was among the first foreign cuisines to be adapted to the tastes of the…
To Be Takei
There are a lot of great moments in Jennifer M. Kroot’s documentary, which offers a peek inside the life of George Takei, once known only as “Sulu” from Star Trek. Takei found second and third acts in life, first as an activist for LGBT issues, and later as a social-media sensation. Takei has shared his…
‘Cider garden’ just one way Arsenal Cider is growing
When Bill Larkin, the owner of Lawrenceville’s Arsenal Cider House, decided to host BBQ master Justin “Hootie” Blakey for a cookout last year, a neighbor complained that Larkin didn’t have the necessary permits. That prompted Larkin to realize that adding outdoor space would help grow business, so he purchased the adjoining lot from a medical-supply…
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
This is a satisfying enough character-driven drama performed by appealing actors. But it’s not Ingmar Bergman, and the title alone signifies a movie that’s too aware of itself. The story revolves around Conor and Eleanor (James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain), whose relationship ends after the death of their child. This premise is true to life, but…
New online program makes donating dairy to food banks easier
When most people donate to their local food bank or food pantry, going to the canned-goods cupboard is almost an automatic response. But these organizations need much more than nonperishables. They also accept fresh produce and a commodity that most people don’t think of — milk. “Milk is one of the most requested products at…
Phat Man Dee and Tommy Amoeba celebrate twin albums
PHAT MAN DEE AND THE CULTURAL DISTRICT and TOMMY AMOEBA DUAL CD RELEASE with LIZ BERLIN, LILITH DEVILLE, MIDDLE CHILDREN, PITTSBURGH COMPLAINTS N’AT CHOIR, GEÑA. 7 p.m. Wed., Sept. 24. Mr. Small’s Theatre 400 Lincoln Ave. Millvale. Free. All ages. 412-821-4447 or mrsmalls.com It was a classic tale of boy-who-dresses-up-as-a-caterpillar-and-yells meets girl-who-swallows-glass, that day back…
Reggie Watkins pays tribute to two inspirations on his new album
REGGIE WATKINS CD RELEASE 8 p.m. Sat., Sept. 27. James Street Gastropub and Speakeasy 422 Foreland St. North Side $10. 412-904-3335 or jamesstreet gastropub.com Trombonist Reggie Watkins has logged numerous miles with everyone from the late trumpeter Maynard Ferguson to singer-songwriter Jason Mraz. In addition to gigs with The Temptations, the West Virginia native and…
The Lopez shores up a unique sound on its first full-length
THE LOPEZ with LORD GRUNGE, HEIGHT, EZE JACKSON, SOUTH SEAS SNEAK 9 p.m. Sat., Sept. 20. Thunderbird Café 4023 Butler St. Lawrenceville. $7. 412-682-0177 or thunderbird cafe.net Fresh off the heels of its second West Coast tour, local electro-punk duo The Lopez (made up of Steph and Jesse Flati) releases its first full-length album, Travel…
Cultural Trust considers plaque commemorating Marley’s final show
After 35 years, Bob Marley’s final concert may finally live forever in Downtown Pittsburgh. On Sept. 23, 1980, the reggae superstar spoke his final words onstage, to an exultant, sold-out crowd at Pittsburgh’s Stanley Theater. “If you keep it up like this we’ll have to come here every year,” he said. “Every week, every month!”…
Critics’ Picks: September 17 – 23
[HIP HOP] + THU., SEPT. 18 Hip hop has always been associated with strong messages of social change and holding those in power accountable. As strong as that tradition is here in the U.S., it’s even more apparent in Cuba, where popular culture is largely censored. Raudel Collazo is one of the biggest names in…
